April 02, 2024
Kyle Ross/USA TODAY Sports
Slow starts are a frustrating norm, but far from the end of the world for Bryson Stott and the Phillies in this era of the franchise.
Four games into another season full of World Series aspirations, the Philadelphia Phillies are...1-3.
The sky is falling.
OK, not really, but here's this era of Phillies baseball – one defined by star sluggers like Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, and hard throwers like Zack Wheeler and José Alvarado – once again stumbling out of the gate, and with an opening series loss to the Braves no less and then a faceplant against the Reds on Monday night.
Slow starts haven't exactly been uncommon for the Phillies over the years, but they're always frustrating, especially when it happens in front of the home crowd and after an entire offseason where the club stressed that they wanted to avoid that for once to actually put up a fight for the division crown.
Yet here we are...again.
When it comes to getting to the postseason, however, those starts are hardly the end of the world, and have actually ended up proving a trait of some of the best Phillies teams in recent memory.
So, using a look back through baseball-reference's archives of early season results for this current era of Phillies baseball (we'll say starting in 2018 when Gabe Kapler took over as manager and Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola clearly established the new core) and the golden era from 2007-2011, here's a quick look at how some of the better-best Phils teams started compared to where they landed:
| Start | Final | Result | |
| 2024 | 1-3 | ??? | ??? |
| 2023 | 0-4 | 90-72 | Reached NLCS |
| 2022 | 3-1 | 87-75 | Won NL Pennant |
| 2021 | 4-0 | 82-80 | Missed Postseason |
| 2020* | 1-3 | 28-32 | Missed Postseason |
| 2019 | 4-0 | 81-81 | Missed Postseason |
| 2018 | 1-3 | 80-82 | Missed Postseason |
| --- | |||
| 2011 | 3-1 | 102-60 | Won NL East |
| 2010 | 3-1 | 97-65 | Reached NLCS |
| 2009 | 1-3 | 93-69 | Won NL Pennant |
| 2008 | 2-2 | 92-70 | Won World Series |
| 2007 | 1-3 | 89-73 | Won NL East |
*COVID shortened 60-game season
So I guess in a way, this is a table to say relax a bit. The Phillies will be fine – probably.
Plus, it's doubtful they're playing baseball Tuesday with the weather. Just look out your window if you're in Philly right now. Never mind, they're going for it.
A few other points from looking back...
• Last season came coupled with Harper watch as he we all tracked his rapid return back from Tommy John surgery. He was taking batting practice by the second series against the Yankees in the Bronx. Alec Bohm also had the hot hand at the plate in the early going.
• The Phils opened the 2022 season against an Oakland A's team that cut the payroll so thin that Harper might've actually had a higher salary than their entire infield combined. They also pummeled the A's in two of three, went to Queens and took one off the Mets, then proceeded to lose four straight on a sluggish path that would eventually get Joe Girardi fired.
• 2021 and 2019 both started with colossal sweeps of the Braves and both ended with the Phillies stalling out by the end and missing the playoffs. Don't sweep the Braves to begin the year.
• The Phillies were flat in the start of their Word Series title defense in 2009 against the Braves, too, but then made that insane 12-11 comeback in the finale on the day they got their rings, so it was fine. They course corrected, too, and got Cliff Lee at the deadline, who still has one of the nastiest curveballs I've ever seen.
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